Saturday, 11 September 2010

Last night I said hello to my trombone again - I had brought my mouthpieces with me to Scotland and done some exercises and it was encouraging to feel that all the notes were still properly installed. Just to be sure, though, I went into one of the big rehearsal rooms at the Globe and alternated playing, singing and piano until I was tired at all three, and today I feel that my mouth muscles (the lips are just a small part) have actually bulked up a bit. Good - I'll be needing them! Next week's visit to Basel will involve six performances and rehearsals for five different projects - an intensity that has more to do with luck than anything else.

The rest of yesterday was spent digging up articles on Rhetoric and Music: the impression that RILM had given me that articles were a bit scarce was dashed to pieces by the JSTOR search engine, which not only found more articles but let me download them as .pdf's too. I only wish that I could print them out, because much as I love this new MacBook Pro, it's tiring to stare at and a plethora of distractions are a short click away.

Indeed, I realize now, after many months of living out of a suitcase or backpack, that what I miss most is not sleeping in the same bed or being able to stock a kitchen (though I miss that too), but having a proper place to work. The last time I went back to Basel, I sat in my office by my printer and got loads done in a short amount of time, spreading out papers, going away and coming back to it with ease. Traveling though, there's no place to spread out, and especially no place that you can dedicate to certain thought processes and not others.

I notice this especially at the moment, since a plan where to live next is forming in my mind and a deadline for a great big funding application looms two months away - the first gives me a source of energy and the second a little bit of welcome pressure to get some reading, writing, and investigating done. To add to this, autumn is here: there's something in the air, the smell of apples perhaps, and a cool, fresh wind that makes me want to listen to lots of fiddle music (or for a change, this), make some tea and intwine myself in all sorts of projects.

But at the moment I'm still cleaning up the debris from my backpack and getting ready to cycle to the Globe for the first show in almost two weeks.